In the bold promontory of Bengore, you behold, as you look up from
the sea, a gigantic colonnade of basaltes, supporting a black mass of
irregular rock, over which rises another range of pillars, “forming
altogether a perpendicular height of one hundred and seventy feet, from
the base of which the promontory, covered over with rock and grass,
slopes down to the sea, for the space of two hundred feet more: making,
in all, a mass of near four hundred feet in height, which, in the beauty
and variety of its colouring, in elegance and novelty of arrangement,
and in the extraordinary magnificence of its objects, cannot be
rivalled.”
Yet I was seized with a fit of yawning, as I sat in my pleasure-boat,
to admire this sublime spectacle. I looked at my watch, observed that
we should be late for dinner, and grew impatient to be rowed back to the
place where we were to dine; not that I was hungry, but I wanted to be
again set in motion. Neither science nor taste expanded my view; and I
saw nothing worthy of my admiration, or capable of giving me pleasure.
The watching a straw floating down the tide was the only amusement I
recollect to have enjoyed upon this excursion.
I was assured, however, by Lady Ormsby, that I could not help being
enchanted with the Lake of Killarney. The party was arranged by this
lady, who, having the preceding summer seen me captivated by Lady
Geraldine, and pitying my disappointment, had formed the obliging design
of restoring my spirits, and marrying me to one of her near relatives.
She calculated, that as I had been charmed by Lady Geraldine’s vivacity,
I must be enchanted with the fine spirits of Lady Jocunda Lawler. So far
were the thoughts of marriage from my imagination, that I only was sorry
to find a young lady smuggled into our party, because I was afraid
she would be troublesome: but I resolved to be quite passive upon all
occasions, where attentions to the fair sex are sometimes expected. My
arm, or my hand, or my assistance, in any manner, I was determined not
to offer: the lounging indifference which some fashionable young
men affect towards ladies, I really felt; and, besides, nobody minds
unmarried women! This fashion was _most convenient to my indolence. In
my state of torpor I was_ not, however, long left in peace. Lady Jocunda
was a high-bred romp, who made it a rule to say and do whatever she
pleased. In a hundred indirect ways I was called upon to admire her
charming spirits: but the rattling voice, loud laughter, flippant wit,
and hoyden gaiety, of Lady Jocunda, disgusted me beyond expression. A
thousand times on my journey I wished myself quietly asleep in my own
castle. Arrived at Killarney, such blowing of horns, such boating, such
seeing of prospects, such prosing of guides, all telling us what to
admire! Then such exclamations, and such clambering! I was walked and
talked till I was half-dead. I wished the rocks, and the hanging-woods,
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